• In Jefferson County, the sheriff’s office is looking into the second major theft of copper wire in a couple of months.
• MidAmerica Nazarene University will cut 21 positions to save the Olathe-based university about $1.2 million.
• Gov. Sam Brownback is promising to outline a plan for boosting Kansas’ economy within a month.
Just three recent Associated Press stories out of Kansas that all point to the obvious issue that things are not well in the Kansas economy.
Brownback made his announcement about the economy at his first cabinet meeting the same day he was sworn into office, and that is a good sign.
It indicates just how seriously this new administration is going to take the need to create jobs in a state that has had its share of bad breaks, and that needs the sort of growth that Brownback is already discussing.
He said he plans to have an economic development program in place within 30 days, and that will be a good sign too, provided it is one that genuinely attends to the needs of the state — all of the state and not just Shawnee and Sedgwick counties.
We’ve seen the term “economic development” thrown at all sorts of projects in the past, many times at projects with questionable job-growth potential.
Kansas, like the rest of the nation, needs a growth of genuine, family-supporting jobs.
That is the economic development that our state leaders need to address.
But, presumably our new governor and his Cabinet already know that.
— Chuck Smith